Artificial marble is an artificial composite having a texture of natural stone and is fabricated by mixing a component such as natural crushed stone, minerals, and resin chips, and, optionally, additives such as a pigment with a base material such as an acrylic resin, an unsaturated polyester resin, an epoxy resin, and cement.
Artificial marble is mainly divided into solid products and granite products fabricated using chips. Examples of artificial marble include acrylic artificial marble, polyester artificial marble, epoxy artificial marble, melamine artificial marble, and engineered stone (E-stone)-based artificial marble. Artificial marble has a beautiful appearance and good processability and is lighter and stronger than natural marble. Thus, artificial marble is widely used as interior/exterior materials for butcher blocks, dressing tables, sinks, counters, walls, floors, and furniture.
In preparation of artificial marble, various chips having different sizes, colors, and materials are used to implement a pattern similar to natural stone or a novel pattern.
Conventionally, an artificial marble chip has been fabricated by coating a seed chip obtained by crushing a cured resin sheet with a resin syrup including a pigment, metal powder, and the like. However, an artificial marble chip fabricated by this coating method has a lack of natural texture since there is a great difference in color between a coating layer and a seed chip.
Therefore, there is a need for an artificial marble chip having a natural color gradient.